Wednesday, 9 July 2014

Run Social Care Application CRM 2013 Tutorial – Part 1 (Setup)

Microsoft has launched the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Sample Social Care Application together with some new entities that they are purposely created for the Social Live and Connection, during the launching of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Springwave ‘14 Updates. As we know that the entities, such as Social Profile entity is only accessible by using CRM API, it is different from the standard entity.

Well, actually to run this new Sample Application is not easy, I tried several times to get it works and I found this is not easy, even in the my former company, for the demo, I was developing from scratch to my former manager to demo to ensure the prospects that CRM is a social-able apps that can connect to any social media, that is I thought it was easier, but, well, I want to try this tool since it is free and of course a nice tool..

Okay, get back to the topic, these are step by step to run the Social Care Application.

Let’s get started.
1. For the starting step, you should and you should really read the ‘Readme’ document under the Social Care folder upon you download the App.

2. Please notice the Prerequisites section first.

Just remember this is not stated in the Prerequisite, that this is only for Microsoft Dynamics CRM with Springwave update, either CRM Online or CRM OnPremise with SP1 installed.

3. You should have Visual Studio 2012/2013 installed to run this Apps.

4. Then, you should connect to the SQL Server Database

5. Just follow the instructions first.

6. You will open the Visual Studio Solution

7. Read again the Prerequisites, to build the Project, you should have all of the required assembly references, including TweetSharp, Hammock, and Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ActiveDirectory.Authentication

So, you should install the Nuget Package

Nuget Package

Go to Tool –> Package –> Manager Console, and type the following commands:

Yes, you should register a CRM app with AD through Windows Azure. You can register with free of charge for trial.

*Additional info:
In order to register your app, you might be requested to input the redirectURI.
You can refer to this link:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn531010.aspx?cs-save-lang=1&cs-lang=csharp#bkmk_redirect

But, now the method has been changed according to this link:http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn481567.aspx

Otherwise, if you are using CRM OnPremise version, so you do not need this. So just watch out about this prerequisite, you might be able to run the Social Care Apps and get the social feeds that you want to, but, you cannot pass the information to CRM.

All about Twitter Development
9. Well, to help you more understand about the next prerequisite:

“Twitter application registration. You must register an application in Twitter so that OAuth against Twitter can be used from the sample app.”

I write the detailed steps,
- You should go to Twitter Dev and App Registration (you should have the Twitter ID, of course!)

1. The sample application needs the consumer and secret keys to communicate with Twitter. You can obtain the keys by registering your app on Twitter. More information: Twitter Apps2. Once you have the keys, update the Web.config file with the keys under the application settings section. The settings are “ConsumerKey” and “ConsumerSecret”.You did the Twitter registration in Step 9.Microsoft Dynamics CRM Setup13. Just follow the instructions, just edit the Web.config, set the value based on your environment.1. Open the Web.config file and change the app settings as indicated here.· Fill in the value for the “CrmServerUrl” setting to point to your server (don’t add the trailing slash mark ‘/’).· Set the value for “DeploymentType” to Online, IFD or OnPremise as per your Microsoft Dynamics CRM installation.· For an IFD:o Specify a value for “OAuthUrl” o Specify a value for “ClientID”· For an Online deployment:o Specify a value for “ClientID”· For an on-premises deployment:o Specify a value for “UserName” o Specify a value for “Password”o Specify a value for “Domain”2. (Optional) Configure the watch list feature. The watch list button in the app UI searches for recent messages from Twitter for the specified search term. The “WatchlistKeyword” setting controls the search term.Build the Sample14. Build the Solution as usual, if you have any error during the building run, then you should check the assemblies and Web.config.15. Then, you can Run the Sample.16. You also can customize the Code based on what do you want.17. I will be back by writing the next part post about Running the Sample Social Case Application in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013Well, a lot of setting and configuration steps to make it works. Nice tool but it was not easy job to get it worked.Continue to Part 2?Click here --> Redirect me to Part 2Hope it helps!Thank you.

Any chance you can expand on Step 8? I cannot get the authentication to CRM working. I assume I have not setup my web app correctly in Azure. Could you explain the relationship between any of the azure settings and the web.config in more detail?

I'm also struggling with the setup process.I followed the instructions in your guide until step 8.Then I tried to do exactly as described in the link you provided: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn531010(v=crm.6).aspx

As we use CRM online, I tried to register the application with MS Azure:I opened the tenant that runs CRM in the Active Directory Menu and added a new application my organization is develeping, named it SCSA and selected Web-App.Then the walkthrough says you should "continue providing the requested information and complete the app registration process".

The problem is: I don't know where to find this requested information. Azure prompts me to enter a Login-URL and APP-ID-URI. Unfortunately neither the official walkthrough nor your guide says where I'm supposed to find these information.

Could you please explain a bit more detailed what information has to be entered there?

The following steps in your guide should not be a problem (setting up the queue in CRM/SQL database or twitter app secrets/keys).